


A Daemon for Dixie

by burglebezzlement



Category: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-06 18:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15200456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burglebezzlement/pseuds/burglebezzlement
Summary: Brisco makes an unexpected discovery about Dixie and her daemon.





	A Daemon for Dixie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertScribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertScribe/gifts).



> Happy Every Woman!
> 
> It didn’t fit into this work, but I feel compelled to mention that Pete Hutter’s daemon in this universe is Pete’s Piece.

Brisco’s just inside the cave entrance, motioning for Dixie and Comet to keep back, keep safe. One of Bly’s lieutenants has been stalking them since Fresno, and now they’re pinned down. 

As long as they stay in the cave, Brisco can hold Bly’s lieutenant off. Or he could, if he hadn’t just run out of bullets. 

Brisco’s looking for an angle. A discarded stick of dynamite, a forgotten box of bullets. Anything more than a rock to throw. He’s trying to figure out a way to build a catapult out of his belt and a discarded orange crate when the lieutenant makes his move. 

The lieutenant shoots toward the cave entrance, and the rock shatters. A shard hits Brisco’s cheek, an unexpected sting followed by the stickiness of blood.

That’s when the cute little snake daemon wrapped around Dixie’s wrist blurs for a moment, and a gigantic lion forms, roars, and charges past Brisco and out of the cave mouth.

“Dixie….” Brisco’s frozen for a moment, trying to understand, before he realizes that he needs to move now and ask questions later. He follows Dixie’s impossible daemon out of the mouth of the cave, gun at the ready. Maybe he can bluff the lieutenant into thinking he’s still got bullets.

He doesn’t need the gun. The lieutenant’s already down, cowering in a ball on the dusty dirt track while the lion paces back and forth on the road in front of him, snarling. 

Dixie comes out of the cave like she’s walking onto a stage, a swing in her hips and a small smile on her lips. Comet follows her out.

“I think you’ve met Kai,” she says, walking up beside the lion and sinking her hand into the fur of the animal’s mane.

The lion turns his head to face Brisco, and isn’t that something. 400 pounds of lion, just sitting there. It makes a man think.

Brisco swallows. “Hello again, Kai. You’re looking well.”

Dixie steps up to brush her hand over the wound on Brisco’s cheek. “Took a little damage there.”

“I’m fine.” Brisco swallows again. Kai’s still looking at him. 

Comet noses up alongside Brisco, and Brisco lets his shoulder lean against him. If Kai is planning on harming Brisco, you wouldn’t know it from Comet’s behavior. He’s looking at Kai like he looks at Soc’s cat daemon, or Bowler’s hawk daemon. 

Dixie throws Brisco a rope. “Come on,” she says. “Get him tied up. How much do you figure the bounty is?”

* * *

“What do you mean, Dixie’s daemon hasn’t settled yet?”

From his desk, Socrates Poole and his ginger-cat daemon, Aristides, are studying Brisco with identical expressions of wide-eyed worry. 

“Just what I said.” Brisco leans back against Soc’s desk. “Look, it isn’t a big deal.”

Soc’s eyes stay wide. Aristides jumps down to start pacing along the floor. “It seems like it is,” Soc says. “Are you sure about this? I didn’t even know it was possible for someone Dixie’s age to not have a settled daemon.”

“And before you met me, you didn’t know men could have male daemons.” 

Brisco still remembers those first few days at Harvard. After a childhood in the West, it had been an adjustment. Trying to find somewhere Comet could stay close enough to him at night, find places for Comet to stay during Brisco’s lectures. City-folk tended to smaller daemons, who could curl up on a lap or shoulder during lectures. Harvard’s officers had been non-plussed to find a horse daemon grazing in Harvard Yard — and finding out the male horse in question had a male owner hadn’t made things any easier. For either of them.

Soc had been one of Brisco’s few fellow students to accept them both without question. Brisco had thought that open-mindedness would extend to Dixie.

“I’m just worried about you,” Soc says. “Are you sure you can trust a woman whose soul is so unsettled her daemon changes form?”

“When we were in Jalisco, you said her having a snake daemon meant we couldn’t trust her. Thought you’d be happy to know we were wrong about that.” Brisco throws back the rest of his drink and sets the glass down. “I’m going to check on Comet.”

Soc sighs. “Be careful, Brisco.”

“I’m a big boy, Soc.”

* * *

A few days later, Brisco’s holed up in Leadville, trying to find Montana Ferguson, a professional horse thief and amateur murderer with a bounty on his head.

Two days in town, and still no leads. Brisco’s staying at a boarding house on the edge of town, the kind of place where you can find a decent stable for a daemon the size of Comet without putting enough space between the two of them to make for an uncomfortable night. He wakes early and polishes off the better part of his landlady’s coffee before heading out for another long day of tracking. 

Dixie’s in the stable when Brisco gets there.

Brisco watches from the door, breath caught in his throat. He’s not sure what he wants. Maybe for Dixie to reach out and touch Comet, run her fingers through his mane — he’s heard about daemon-touching, everyone has, but this might be the first time he’s wanted it.

Instead, Dixie holds a green apple out to Comet, keeping her hand flat. Comet’s lips are just above her palm as he crunches into the apple. 

She’s got a white fur piece around her neck, wrapped around the neck of her riding jacket. Her breeches cling in all the places breeches aren’t meant to cling, and her curls are pulled back with a green velvet ribbon. 

Brisco clears his throat. “What are you doin’ here, Dix?”

She turns to face him, and Brisco realizes that what he thought was a fur piece is actually a long, furry creature, like an mink or an ermine, wrapped around Dixie’s throat. Her daemon.

“Kai.” Brisco nods, and the daemon raises his head to give Brisco a knowing look before snuggling back into Dixie's collarbone. 

“I wanted to thank you,” Dixie says. “Most people don’t know about Kai.”

“Thank me?”

“For not making a thing about it.” Dixie shrugs and steps back from Comet. “Kai mostly stays as a snake, these days. Not always the same snake, but I find people usually don’t notice.”

Brisco can see why. It’s not polite to look too close at a lady’s daemon, even if the lady in question is choosing to show off her ankles at the time. And Dixie’s shows usually feature other — attractions. 

Dixie moves a little closer. Brisco can smell her perfume. 

“Most men have opinions,” she says.

“I can imagine,” Brisco says. “I’m not most men.”

Dixie laughs, low and musical. “I guess not.”

“So.” Brisco drags his attention away from the way Kai’s fur sits against Dixie’s throat. “What brings you to Leadville, Dix?”

“Heard you were looking for Montana Ferguson. Back when I was with Big Smith, we had a rendezvous with Ferguson outside of town, in one of the abandoned mines. I can lead you there.”

Brisco gets Comet saddled up and then helps Dixie saddle up her horse. He puts his hand out to help her jump up into the saddle, even though they both know she doesn’t need it.

“One more thing,” Dixie says, as they ride out of the stables together. 

“Anything.”

“Me and Kai,” Dixie says. “We might not have settled on a final form. I don’t think we ever will. But that doesn’t mean I won’t stake my claim on one man.”

Brisco’s left speechless. Dixie pulls her horse up alongside Comet and leans over, pulls Brisco in by the neckerchief, and kisses him soundly. 

“Any objections?” she asks, her hand still on his neckerchief. 

“No, ma’am.”

“Good.” Dixie lets his neckerchief go, and gives her horse free rein, galloping ahead into the morning. Brisco sees when Kai blurs, and then he takes on a bird form, and soars into the air above the trail. 

Comet neighs.

“You and me both, buddy.” Brisco puts his hand on Comet’s neck, and they gallop down the trail after Dixie and Kai. “You and me both.”


End file.
